Halo HiTec
by FLAMELASHER
Summary: Ever wondered why the technology from Halo is worse, in several places, than modern tech? That's why I'm writing this story, which is about how Halo would go if the UNSC were more advanced, starting in 2525. Rated T for swearing, violence, gore, etc
1. Joseph: Welcome To Combat

**A/N: This is the first chapter of my new story. It's not replacing Halo: The Last Stand, I'm going to alternate updates. First, however, I'm going to bring this up to the same amount of chapters as Halo: The Last Stand. Anyway, you're not here to listen to me ramble on. You're here for the story. It's down there. Yep, that way. Why are you still reading this. Wouldn't you rather read the story. Go on. Nothing else to see here. Look down there. Where it has the bold words saying Private Joseph Clark. Yep, them ones. No, not the ones 7 words ago. The ones lower down. At the start of the big paragraph. No, not this big paragraph. The next one. Yes, that one. STOP READING THIS! The story starts below. You know what, I'm not going to stop you. If you _want_ to waste your time with this, feel free. Umm... Just reading the freaking story!**

**Private Joseph Clark** pulled on the helmet to his United Nations Space Command Marine Battle Armour. The suit of armour was composed of heavy boots with advanced grip, armor plates covering his legs and knees but keeping his freedom of movement, a combat belt full of slots for gear, a strong but lightweight chestplate, simmilar armor to his legs for his arms, gloves with magnetic grip, and a helmet. The helmet covered everything except his face with armor, including his neck and chin. A polarised visor concealed his face, and gave him his Heads-Up-Display, showing his his health status, weapons, ammo, grenades, and several optional features including comm channel list, squad's status, and objective marker. The most interesting feature, in Joseph's opinion, was the built in jetpack. He took a bullpup MA5B Assault Rifle from the rack on the wall, icon popping up on his hud, showing his clip had 0 out of 60 bullets. He slotted in a clip and it updated as he put several more into the slots on his combat belt. The MA5B Assault Rifle's rounds were powerful, and packed enough punch to tear through most armours known to man. Not only that, it also heated them up to allow them to break through armour easier. He also took a XGR1, an experimental weapon that fired bolts of Gauss Energy, like the famous Stanchion Gauss Sniper Rifle. However, it packed less of a punch and had lesser range, instead having the power to fire 12 shots without recharging the battery, and the compact design made it more suitable for close combat.

"Ready for this, mate?" asked Jospeh's friend from boot camp, Private Dillon Green.

"Yeah. It's just innies." replied Joseph, using the Marine nickname for Insurrectionists.

"I meant mentally." Dillon said back, slotting a clip into his MA5B Assault Rifle.

"I don't know, Dillon." Joseph sighed, looking into his friend's green eyes.

"Remember, these are the scum who killed your brother." Dillon said.

Jospeh's twin brother Tristan had been killed in a suicide bombing three years ago while our clubbing one night. Jospeh had never forgotten the moment the police officer turned up at his door and told him the bad news. On that day, he had joined the Marines, not for revenge, but to stop the same happening to others.

"That's not why I joined, and you know it, Dillon." Joseph said, frustrated.

"But you do want revenge, don't you." Dillon said. It wasn't a question.

"You know me too well, Dillon." Jospeh replied; "That, or you're a physic."

"A little bit of both, my friend." Dillon said, reffering to his ability to 'read' people.

"Touchdown in 1 minute." said the pilot's voice from the cockpit of the Pelican Dropship.

The Pelican was heavily armed, with a large amount of rockets, machine guns, and grenade launchers, and also able to take a heavy beating. Several were starting to be given remote control, allowing pilots to stay safe while dropping off troops. Despite all the combat capabilities weighing it down, the Pelican is very fast, having a small but efficient engine and powerful thrusters. The troop bay of the Pelican not only had racks of weapons, grenades, and helmets, but also enough capacity to hold 24 Marines. It had been brought into service to replace the smaller, slower, and harder to pronounce Auklet Dropship 11 years ago and was still better than all alternatives. It touched down lightly and the doors sprang open with a barely audible hiss.

"Alpha, secure the area!" shouted Sergeant Titus, Alpha's captain.

"Sir, yes sir!" 11 voices replied as Alpha, Joseph and Dillon's squad, fanned out, sweeping the area with their rifles.

"Clear." said Sergeant Titus said once 11 green lights had popped up on his HUD, a 'clear' signal from each member of his squad.

"Move out, Bravo!" shouted the leader of the other 12-man squad on the Pelican, Sergeant Rogan.

Bravo Squad surged forwards in a tight-knit group, then split into two, one half getting ready to open the door leading inside the tall, drab building they had landed on, the other trooping down the fire escape stairs, which looked exactly the same as the old 21-st century ones. Jospeh guessed they were going to block the ground floor entrance to the building. Apha Squad, however, had a slightly more interesting job.

"Get ready to jump, Alpha." Sergeant Titus said over the comm.

Everyone complied, powering up their jetpack to around 10%, enough to get them across from the roof to the fire escape on the building opposite. Joseph ran to the edge with the others and jumped, activating his jetpack. At only 10% power, the thrust was barely visible. Joseph landed smoothly and checked his squadmate's views through his HUD. 10 of them were on the roof. The other was falling. Joseph saw himself on the Marine's camera and reached out, grabbing their wrist. He tried to pull them up, and with Dillon and a Marine he didn't recognize helping, the Marine was up in no time. She thanked the three Marines, explaining her jetpack had malfunctioned, then she drew her XGR1 and jogged over to a higher up position. Joseph aimed over at the building. Alpha were going to fire a floor below Bravo's position, wounding, pinning down and distracting the Innies inside so Bravo could deal with them without taking any losses.

"We're breaching in three..." said Sergeant Rogan to Alpha Squad over the comm; "Two... One..."

Joseph heard an explosion, dimly in reality and clearly through the comm. He aimed two floors below the roof, and opened fire on one of the windows. It burst into shards which shot in every direction, and the Innies inside scrambled for cover. One took a bullet to the knee and fell, crying in pain. A second later he was shot in the chest and died, blood leaking onto the floor. Joseph struggled to tear his eyes away from the corpse, and the red pool he, no, it, was lying in. He succeeded and resumed spraying bullets through the window, not aiming at anything in paticular, and slowly tilting his gun from side to side, carving a line of bullet marks in the floor. He saw a white beam cut through a wall and tear off an Innie's arm, instantly cauterizing the wound. A door burst open, and Bravo moved in. Joseph added their markers to his HUD to avoid shooting them by mistake. Alpha shifted their fire down and the same thing went on for a few more levels before the Innies started fleeing, abbandoning the bombs they were packaging and making. Suddenly, one of the walls on the 8th floor from the ground, the one facing Alpha, exploded into smoke and fire. Seconds later, a large amount of bullets started flying towards Alpha. Jospeh took cover behind the railing, bullets whizzing narrowly over his head. The fire ceased for a second and Joseph heard the sounds of empty clips hitting the floor. He popped up, sighted over an Innie's head, and- Shifted his aim to the Innie's knee, firing one shot. He collapsed and Jospeh popped back into cover as the Innies started to return fire.

"You has his head in your sights, why didn't you shoot him?" the Marine next to him asked angrily.

"I couldn't. He was just fighting for what he believed was right." Jospeh replied, equally angry.

"Fighting for what he believes is right? He's slaughtering innocents, rookie!" the Marine snapped.

"Don't you think I know that?" Joseph growled; "I'm not like you, I don't kill people just because I can!"

"But by letting it live, you let people die to it's hands!" the Marine replied as clips started hitting the ground.

Joseph popped out and settled his sights on an Innie's chest, then his finger tightened on the trigger. The Innie fell down, blood billowing from his chest. Jospeh stood there and stared, seeing what he had done. He'd killed someone. The few surviving Innies broke and ran, and Jospeh stared at the carnage. 19 dead Innies.

"Nineteen..." Joseph muttured.

"And one hundred and ten innocents saved, given the average Innie's kill count." said the Marine beside him; "Ten by you alone. Good job, kid."

"I guess." Joseph muttered vaugley, then turned to Dillon; "You kill any?"

"One." Dillon replied quietly, almost as pale as Joseph.

"This isn't over yet, Alpha, they're fleeing with bombs and hostages." Sergeant Titus announced.

"Plan, sir?" someone replied.

"We chase them over the rooftops." replied Sergeant Titus.

"Sir, my jetpack doesn't work." said the Marine who's jetpack had malfunctioned.

"The Pelican just dropped a spare on the roof." Sergeant Titus responded calmly.

"Hang on..." said Joseph over the comm.

"What?" someone asked.

"I thought half of Bravo were guarding the exit." Joseph replied.

"They were." the same person replied.

Joseph swore at their deaths, and brought up the name of the person who had given him the bad news. Lance Corporal Joanne Hook, the woman he'd saved from falling to her death earlier. She was kind of pretty. Joseph forced his mind back to the task, jetpacking to the next roof.

"Enemy dropship!" the Marine who Joseph had argued with earlier shouted.

Joseph glanced up, and saw an old Auklet dropship approaching, heavily armoured, and smaller than the Pelican. It was painted brown with rough orange lines streaking over it. Joseph quickly checked the Marine's name. Private First Class Frederic Brown. The Auklet's frontal chainguns burst into action, and Joseph was forced to deactivate his jetpack and plummet to survive. He fired it back up, and saw the Auklet had turned away. He MA5B rifle slipped from his hands and fell to the street below. Joseph, not having time to retrieve it, drew his XGR1. He'd only used it once in training, and it had left a deep hole in the wall behind the target. Then again, the wall was heavily damaged from all the missed shots it had taken in it's time, and made of brick, not titanium. Joseph stopped reminiscing and focused, landing on the roof where Dillon was waiting for him. The rest of the squad were flying around, the Auklet's chaingun stopping them from getting a shot off from their XGR1s. Joseph turned to Dillon, who didn't have an XGR1. Instead, he had the 'Jesus Pistol' M6D Magnum.

"I just marked the engines on your HUD. You're a better shot." Dillon said; "And you have an XGR1."

"You want me to kill an entire dropship full of Innies?" Joseph asked.

"There's nothing stopping them bailing out." Dillon replied; "Besides, it's just the pilot."

"I... I... Ok." Joseph said.

He turned, raised his XGR1, and sighted on the Auklet's engines, only able to be hit from the very specific angle Joseph was at from it's back. Then he fired, white energy slicing through the air and into the armor just to the right of the engines. Joseph cursed and fired again, this time hitting the engines. The Auklet wobbled in the air and the engines started smoking. Joseph fired two more shots, and the engine exploded. The Auklet was torn in half and the pilot jumped out, parachuting away before being shot in the chest by a Marine's XGR1. The pieces of wreckage spiraled to the ground, where they landed loudly. Right in front of the Innie jeeps. Dillon jumped from the roof, followed by Joseph, then a few more members of Alpha. They raised their MA5Bs and XGR1s, glaring at the Innies who were leaving their jeeps. The 6 Innies who had escaped lined up in front of the 6 Alpha Squad Marines, not returning fire, old MA5A Assault Rifles hanging from their straps.

"Hands up!" shouted Sergeant Titus.

"Fuck off, UNSC scum!" an Innie shouted, raising his rifle.

5 hit the ground before they finished raising their rifles, a combination of the Marine's slightly augmented reflexes, and their tactical advantage. Joseph had the final one in his sights, but couldn't bring himself to fire. The time he'd gunned down the Innie earlier was different. But up close, Joseph couldn't bear to shoot someone. Not when he could see their face, covered in sorrow and desperation. Not when he could see part of the photo of his children sticking out of his pocket. The Innie fired, and next to him, a Marine hit the ground, visor shattered and dent in the back of their helmet. Their helmet feed icon was replaced with a red X on Joseph's HUD. The Innie was gunned down, and Joseph glanced over at the fallen Marine.

It was Dillon.


	2. Teknov: The New Threat

**A/N: Sorry about this chapter being shorter than the first one, but I'll try to make the next one longer. How was this chapter? I haven't written space combat before, so I hope it's ok. Anyway, I'll shut up now and give you this chapter. Please review. **

**Captain Henry Teknov** stood on the bridge of his Frigate, the _UNSC Lights Out_. On the screen in front of him, he could see the enemy. And he had no idea what it was. It was shaped like a fishing hook, completley smooth, purple, and had no clear bridge. Pinpricks of light were glowing dimly along it, and it was turning to face the UNSC Fleet with the "front" of it's "hook". Teknov almost laughed. Like one weird-ass ship could take on thirty UNSC ships. His ship was made of heavy armor plating, straight, rough lines, point defense machine guns, Archer missile pods, and a huge Mass Accelerator Cannon, the most deadly kinetic weapon ever invented. And thirty-six of them were pointing at the lone alien ship. Teknov recieved a firing solution on his computer screen, and forwarded it to his weapons officer. A countdown appeared on his, and his weapons officer's screens. Ten... Nine... Eight... The vaccum near the alien ship was prised open, a hole in slipspace being open. The UNSC couldn't manage that kind of prescision in their faster than light, sub-dimensional travel, more punching holes in slipspace that opening them. That could only mean...

"Enemy reinforcments! Eight of them, sir!" shouted one of Teknov's officers.

The worry filling Teknov dissapeared.

"Only eight? Hah!" the Captain laughed, the enemy were throwing away their ships.

He turned back to the countdown, which had been cancelled. A new firing solution and countdown appeared, and Teknov ordered his officers to get ready. The Mass Accelerator Cannon could hurl a 800 ton ferric tungesten missile coated in heat-resistant chemicals to protect it from the incredible heat it carried, at the insanse speed of 100 kilometers a second. A millisecond earlier, the alien ships had activated their thrusters, launching themselves out of the way. None took the full four slugs aimed at each one. But all of them were hit. Teknov smiled and took a look at the screen showing the enemy fleet. And all nine ships were in one piece, white, semi-transparant energy surrounding them. The Captain glanced at the other two screens showing the enemy, then his tactical map. They confirmed that what he saw was no illusion. He did the only thing he could think of, and ordered the Archer missiles launched. 17 other captains had had the same idea, and a wall of missiles capable of bringing down buildings, tanks, fighters, bombers, and even bunkers headed towards the alien fleet. Hopefully their... shields... had been a one off. Teknov eagerly watched the screen in front of him as the missiles hit, followed by another 6 ship's worth as more Captains chipped in. Flames and explosions blossomed in the vacuum, caused by the missiles that had gotten past the alien's point defense lasers.

"My god..." said one of the officers as the ships took the missiles; "First the MACs, now the Archers..."

The pinpricks of light on the alien ships glew more brightly.

"EMERGENCY THRUSTERS! NOW!" screamed Teknov.

He was thrown against a wall as the ship shot to the side, nearly crashing into another. A lance of light managed to hit the ship, but tens more missed. He got back to his feet and turned to his Systems Officer.

"Damage Report!" he ordered.

"It went straight through the frontal armour... Oh my god... It cut all the way through. Destroyed one of our backup reactors... Oh shit... It exploded and destroyed three decks!" the young, nervous, blonde Systems Officer reported; "The other ships... Three are completley destroyed, and nine crippled."

"Orders, sir?" asked the experienced, steely calm Weapons Officer.

"All UNSC Ships are now authorised to use Nuclear Weapons, I repeat, all UNSC Ships are now authorised to use Nuclear Weapons." said the voice of the Admiral over the comm.

"There's your orders." said Teknov, headed for his seat.

"Yes sir." replied the Weapons Officer.

Twenty one Nuclear Missiles were launched almost simultaneously. They soared forwards, towards the alien ships, and impacted. The blinding white flashes combined into one and when they cleared, Teknov punched the air in victory. Four of the alien ships were down, and the other five looked damaged. It had taken the combined power of twenty one of the second most deadly weapons in humanity's arsenal (the most deadly being the mysterious NOVA 'planet killer' bomb), but they had done it. They had proven the alien ships, were, in fact, destroyable.

"Sir, they're returning fire!" one of his Officers shouted.

Teknov looked out of the window to see several huge globs of plasma racing towards the UNSC Fleet. His Navigation Officer made the ship dodge the plasma glob, and only two ships were hit. And turned into lumps of molten metal.

"Sir! Two more of our ships have been destroyed!" an Officer shouted.

"Damn it! Return fire!" shouted Teknov, sending a firing solution to his Weapons Officer.

"What with, sir?" asked the Weapons Officer.

"Everything we've got." the Captain replied.

A second later, the ship shuddered as a MAC Slug and horde of Archer missiles shot forwards, followed by a few more missiles designed to sink into ships and detonate inside them. A few more ships did the same thing at the same time, but before the ones who didn't fire could join, plasma globs slammed into the back of the UNSC Fleet. The hit ships shuddered and exploded, the shockwaves pushing the rest of the fleet through space. Teknov barely managed to stay on his feet, and looked at the screen. Three more ships were destroyed, and another two damaged by shockwaves. He turned his attention to the screen showing the enemy ships, and saw two more of them destroyed, leaving only three. Hopefully they would turn tail and run.

"Sir, enemy... Dropships, I think... incoming!" shouted an Officer.

Teknov watched on the screen as a swarm of curved, U shaped craft flew towards the UNSC Fleet, well, the twenty-two left, only half of which were in good enough condition. Pitch-black Longsword Fighters soared towards them, flashes of light going off on their fronts as they opened fire. Blue lights flashed on the alien dropships, but instead of stopping there, continued forwards towards the incoming fighters. Most dodged. The ones that didn't exploded into flames which died instantly without air to fuel them. The Longswords span around as they passed the alien dropships and returned fire, finishing off the damaged ones, taking a quarter from their number. More purple alien craft came in, but a different type. They vaugley resembled teardrops, with the thin, long part split down the middle, thrust going through the gap. They fired a swarm of small, fast blue projectiles at the Longswords, damaging most and destroying a few, then followed up with larger, slower green bolts that homed in on the Longswords. Explosions flashed in the vaccum.

"Holy shit, that's most of the Longswords gone!" shouted the Systems Officer, nervously watching the screen.

The few remaining Longswords span to face the new threat and opened fire with machine guns and missiles, which slammed into the alien fighters. Teknov swore. They had the 'shields' of the frigates. A few seconds later the last Longsword took a green bolt to the engine and exploded. The alien fighters circled around the dropships, ready to fight off any new threats. The group broke into five smaller ones and targeted the furthest forward 5 UNSC ships. Including the_ Lights Out_. The Captain thought for a second, wondering if the point defense guns would be enough. He decided to see if the Point Defense Lasers could stop them. He watched the screen apprehensively. The alien dropships and fighters drew closer, and ruby red beams of solid light surged forwards, cutting through a decent amount of them. Captain Teknnov smiled at the good work the ship's supercomputer had done with aiming, but it fell from his face when, after the second volley, at least 40% of them were close enough to start boarding unthreatened by the lasers. He activated his whole-ship microphone, and gave an order.

"All Marines to the hangars, I repeat, all Marines to the hangars." he slumped in his chair nervously.

His battle was over. It was down to the Marines now.


	3. Richard: Hangar Defense

**A/N: Sorry for the delay. Here's the chapter. Enjoy.**

**Corporal Richard Jensen** was excited. That, and petrifed. Curious, too. Nervous and impatient. So many feelings were pulsing through his body that he couldn't even name half of them. He was an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. One of the hard-as-nails, badass 'Helljumpers'. Augmented to be stronger than the average weightlifter, faster than the average sprinter, and have reflexes better than a... Richard didn't know what had good reflexes. He wasn't the smartest man alive. He didn't need to be. He needed to be a top tier soldier, and he was definitely that. At 6 foot 4 and clad in midnight black ODST Battle Armour and wielding dual M7 Submachineguns, he looked the piece. The fourty two lines carved into his gauntlet were proof of his efficency. He clipped one of his SMGs to his side and double-checked the other, then swapped them around. Once he was statisfied with both, he tested his comm, sending a ping to the 7 other members of his squad and their Smart AI Eowyn. He got a ping back from the five members of his squad, and a slightly more amusing response from Eowyn. The AI popped up on his HUD. She wore ancient armour, a beaten cloak, and a helmet that barely held in her digital hair. She held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. Richard knew she was from some old book - Lord Of The Rings, was it?

"I'm offended, Richard." she said in mock hurt; "I thought we were on talking terms."

Richard couldn't help but smile at the Artificial Intelligence. The technology was first invented some time in the 2450s and perfected about 30 years ago. It was very hard to tell that the computer programs weren't humans, and they could go on for 21 years on average before overloading with data and turning 'rampant'. At that point, they, as far as Richard could tell, went batshit insane. Another technology perfected around that time was the electrical gun. It was first used back in the 21st century but errors caused it to be abandoned until 35 years ago, when a company researched it and fixed the technology over the course of 5 and a half years. It eradicated the old problems of guns jamming, guns overheating, and guns rusting. A few types weren't waterproof, the only downside.

"We are, Eowyn." Richard replied.

"Oh, sure we are!" she said sarcastically; "It's not like you'd just ping me rather than talk to me!"

"I pinged everyone else." Richard pointed out.

"Yeah right." the AI muttered.

"It's true." the ODST said gruffly.

"Duh. I can pick up the whole squad's comms, you know." came the reply.

"You were just sayi-" Richard started.

"They're cutting in!" shouted a Marine nervously.

"Get ready ODST! I don't know what'll come through that hole, but I do know, is that we're going to shoot it in it's mutilated alien face!" shouted Sergeant Spiers, the leader of the ODST Squad.

"Sir, yes sir!" shouted the 5 ODST under his command.

"I estimate the hole will be fully cut in three..." started Eowyn, lines of code swirling around her avatar; "two... one..."

The glowing orange circle was completed, and the metal inside was kicked into the hangar, revealing an alien. It was clad in intricate golden armour, taller than any human on the ship, and had four mandibles. What little of it's skin was visible with grey and looked scaly. In it's right hand was a metal rod, which seemed to be projected two crackling blue blades of energy that arced around it's hand and pointed forwards, nearly touching. In it's left hand was a long, curved U shaped blue gun, with the open center of the U containing the weapon's handle. Instantly 6 ODSTs were aiming at the alien, and then it was sprayed with lead. The bullets surged forwards, but before they made contact, they bounced and clattered to the ground, the alien lit up by a shimmering white-gold... forcefield? The two Rookies in the squad charged straight in, firing their Assault Rifles madly, hoping to get fame for being the first ODST to kill and alien. The alien leapt forwards, slamming it's blades through the nearest rookie's chest in one blow, the blades poking out of the back of the rookie's armour. The other rookie was gunned down by a burst of blue bolts from the alien's gun. Richard cursed and rolled behind a barricade as it turned to fire at him. Blue flames spalshed across the ground and it leapt forward, lunging for Roger, the more quiet of the ODST Squad. Roger's shotgun roared and the alien was thrown backwards, forcefield destroyed. Roger fired at it as it tried to get up, finishing it off.

"Good work. Pity about the rooki-" Staff Sergeant Spiers started when more aliens flooded into the room.

These ones were short and also grey skinned. They wore simple armour and gas masks, with triangular orange tanks on their back. The held small, C shaped weapons that curved forwards around their hands. They jabbered loudly as they waved their guns around, sending green bolts everywhere. Richard popped out of cover and fired one shot at the nearest of the aliens, testing if they had forcefields. The bullet penetrated into it's exposed arm, causing an explosion of blue blood. Richard smiled and emptied what was left in his SMGs at the small aliens, tearing four of them apart. His teammates were making short work of the aliens too. One of their shots managed to connect with Roger, who fell to the ground, clutching his hip. Richard sent a short burst of bullets into the offending alien as he moved forwards and grabbed Roger's shoulder, asking his squad to cover him. Bullets burst into the alien's bodies as they tried to shoot Richard and Roger was quickly dragged to safety. Richard made sure Roger was stable before popping out of cover and helping mop up the last of the smaller aliens, who were breaking and running back to their boarding tubes. None of them made it.

"I guess those were the Grunts of their army?" Daniel, one of the ODSTs, asked.

"How should I know?" replied another ODST, Frank, angrily.

"Good name for them, though." Richard chipped in; "Grunts."

"What do we call the first one, then?" Daniel asked; "Elites?"

"Sounds good to me." Richard said.

"I need biofoam." Roger moaned through the comm.

Richard got out his syringe of biofoam, a chemical used to seal wounds and keep soldiers at their maximum efficency until propery surgery could be preformed. It was a tried and true thing that had been in use for almost 60 years. Roger injected it into his hip, where his armour had been burnt away, revealing charred skin. Roger got to his feet, then ducked back behind cover as another wave of "Grunts" entered the room, these ones firing with more prescision, with two blue-armoured "Elites" holding the same guns as the first one the ODSTs had met, but without the blades. Staff Sergeant Spiers barked some orders and the ODSTs all hurled grenades into the Grunt's midst. There was a series of explosion and the ODSTs picked off the survivors, leaving only the two Elites. One of them tossed a glowing blue orb at Richard's piece of cover, causing the ODST to roll to another barricade. He turned to look at his old barricade as it was immolated in blue flames, hurling wreckage in all directions. The other Elite had been busy keeping the rest of Richard's squad in cover. Richard aimed both of his SMGs at the Elite who had thrown a grenade at him and emptied them into his tall, blue-armoured foe, who stumbled backwards as it's forcefield broke. Daniel's XGR1 tore a hole through the forcefield-free Elite and it fell to the ground, dead.

The other Elite roared and grabbed it's fallen friend's gun in it's left hand and charged at Daniel, spraying blue bolts into the barricade, that melted under the bolts. Richard charged at the space between the ODST and charging alien and drew his combat knife. Him and the alien reached the same point at the same time and Richard lunged for the alien's throat. The Elite grabbed his wrist and threw him into a field of alien corpses. Richard grabbed one of the Grunt's weapons and aimed it at the Elite, who was gripping Daniel by the throat. He squeezed what he assumed was the trigger as sent lots of green bolts at the Elite, heat washing over him. The alien collapsed a second before it was about to shoot Daniel, and vents popped open on the Grunt's weapon. It heated ip to an unberable level and Richard dropped it, swearing. He got to his feet and walked over to Daniel, who was injecting himself with his biofoam syringe where he had taken a glancing shot on the left arm.

"You good?" Richard asked.

"Yeah, I'm good." Daniel replied; "Except for, you know, being shot by a fucking laser and choked half to death."

"That's standard fare for ODSTs." Richard replied.

"Contacts." Roger stated.

Richard got his SMGs from his magnetic holsters and aimed them at the boarding tube. Out poured a horde of small aliens, barely visible behind their glowing, circular, blue shields. They formed a small version of one of them old Roman formations, Turtles. Richard unloaded both SMGs into the shield wall, and 120 shells clattered on the ground at their feet.

"Don't try to break their shields, I detect more energy than the group of Elites gave off per pair of them." Eowyn said.

"What do you reccomend then, smartass?" Frank shouted at the AI.

"Tr-" Eowyn started to say.

"Hands. Grenades." Roger said as he shot through one of their weapons and hands, causing them to reel back in pain.

"I was talking! It's rude to interupt." Eowyn said as Frank gunned down the alien.

"Cut the chatter!" Sergeant Spiers shouted as he reached for a fragmentation grenade.

Richard slapped his SMGs onto his magnetic holster and drew his more accurate BR55 Battle Rifle. He aimed down the scope, setting it to 2x, and sighted on the alien's hand. A burst of three bullets shot from the barrel and tore the alien's hand apart, spraying colourful blood over it's allies. It grasped it's gun hand, moving the shield from it's head long enough for Richard to put three bullets through it's skull. He gunned down the one behind it before it could shift it's shield to defend it. A grenade flew into the gap, blowing the nearby aliens into bloody chunks. With the formation broken on that side, and again by a rolled grenade on the far left, the aliens were mown down by a full automatic spray from Richard, Roger, Daniel and Sergeant Spiers. Richard glanced over to where Frank was, and saw only a smoking corpse. He cursed and rushed around the edge of his cover, lashing a kick out into the face of the last alien standing. He saw it looked a bit like some kind of ugly, 2-legged, jackal. It's head snapped backwards and it hit the ground hard, dead.

"That's the last of them." Eowyn stated; "According to my sensors."

"Thank fuck for that." Daniel said.

"Would've been better if it happened earlier." Richard replied.

"Would've been better if it didn't happen." Daniel sighed.

"So they kept coming forever? Psycopathic, Daniel." Eowyn joked.

"I meant the entire battle." Daniel snapped.

"What, you wanted us to just let them waltz through?" Eowyn replied instantly.

"Shut up." Daniel replied simply.


	4. Joseph: Infiltrating The Base

**A/N: Hello my fans/not-actually-fans-just-people-reading-this-story-because-they-find-it-mildly-interesting. I'll call them NAFJPRTSBTFIMI. Ok, maybe not. It's still far too long. Anyway, this time we return to Joseph in our second longest chapter yet, topped only by the opening. Joseph always gets the spotlight. I get the feeling that the other characters will get jealous.**

Private Joseph Clark stood by the door to the building. This was the Innie base. He loaded his silenced MA5B Assault Rifle. He couldn't fail, not this time. Last time he did, Dillon died. If he failed again, he didn't know who would die, and didn't want to find out. He barely noticed the rain pouring down on him and the rest of Alpha Squad, and the dark clouds rolling through the sky, lightning crackling around them and striking down on the tops of skyscrapers in the nearby city, their energy absorbed and stored by the advanced antenna atop them. He barely noticed the howling wind, rushing over the ground and hurling the raindrops violently against the walls of the short, dark grey building. All he knew was him, his weapon, his squad, and the building. The squad stacked up on the door, 11 heavily armed Marines looking like shadow creatures in the darkness, visible only by the faint moonlight. To them, though, everything was bright as day, thanks to their visors. A squad member stepped forwards to the door, holding a breaching charge. He placed it, and stepped backwards. The reinforced steel door crumpled and was silently reduced to a lump of beaten metal. The Marine pushed it and it swung open. Alpha Squad moved in.

"Clear!" whispered PFC Frederic Brown over the comm, scanning the right of the dark room.

"Clear!" Lance Corporal Joanne Hook added, looking to the left, silenced MA5B raised.

"Clear!" Private Chris Kimber, the Marine who had used the breaching charge, added, rifle pointed straight ahead.

"Clear!" two more Marines, the Hayaki twins, announced in unison, aiming for the far corners.

"Warning. Large amounts of explosive compounds detected in marked locations." the Squad's new AI said, markers popping up on the Marines' HUDs; "Caution reccomended."

The AI was what was called a 'dumb AI', which was wildy innacurate. The computer program could store two thousand terabytes of data, make split-second calculations, operate hyper-sensetive sensors, and do so indefinetly. However, it lacked a name, personality, and apperance. It couldn't do anything other than it's intended functions, couldn't learn, and couldn't think for itself. It was basically an advanced computer, unlike the 'smart AIs', who were a digital human. Well, it not having a name was a lie. It's name was MAIS-3524, standing for Marine Artificial Intelligence Support Number 3524.

"Avoid the markers, Alpha." Sergeant Titus whispered over the comm.

"No shit, sherlock." muttered Frederic, having forgotten to turn off his comm.

"Pardon?" growled Sergeant Titus, walking carefully around a HUD marker.

"Sorry, sir." replied Frederic as he hopped over an explosive compound location.

"Twelve unidentified human lifeforms detected in next room." MAIS-3524 stated.

"Alright, we're outnumbered by one but have surprise and grenades. AI, bring up markers on the Innies." Sergeant Titus started.

Markers popped up all over the wall, showing the locations of the enemies. Sergeant Titus primed a stun grenade, kicked a door open, and tossed the metal ball into the midst of the largest group. 5 Innies clutched their ears and stumbled around as the rest of the Marines poured into the well lit room. Silenced MA5Bs silently cut through the Innies so soon after their wielders squeezed the triggers that the bullets' speed would've made a god jealous. Joseph kicked an Innie in his knee, bringing him down, then finished him off with a burst to the back after a slight pause. He couldn't show the mercy. It'd lead to more death. The Willis twins both aimed at the same Innie, destroying his brain and heart simultaneously. A third Innie had a line carved from his right shoulder to left hip by Frederic's gun. Lance Corporal Joanne Hook put a short burst straight through an Innie's chest, spraying her in blood. It was over in seconds.

"Second room that's been empty." one of the Willis twins said.

"Almost like they knew we were coming..." the other added.

"They're right, I don't like this." Sergeant Titus added; "Chance of a trap, AI?"

"94.71%" MAIS-3524 replied instantly.

"Scan the next room." Sergeant Titus ordered.

"Sensor blockers in the wall." MAIS-3524 announced.

"It's a trap." one of the Willis twins said.

"No shit, sherlock." Frederic said.

"You did that one already." said a Marine Joseph didn't recognise.

"No shit, sherlock." Joseph joked.

"You- Oh, wait, you didn't." the same Marine replied.

"Enough chatter. Set up a breaching position there and there. 5 men to each. One stays here just in case." Sergeant Titus ordered, creating HUD markers on the wall; "Spray the room with lead, then switch to XGR1s, tear them Innies apart with beams of energy."

"The XGR1 doesn't fire energy, it accelera-" started MAIS-3524.

"We don't give a shit, AI." Frederic snapped.

"Brown, silence." Sergeant Titus said.

Frederic obeyed, and Alpha split into their groups, and got into position. Sergeant Titus slapped a breaching charge on the wall, and Joanne did the same on the other side. They went off at the same time and Alpha charged into the room, spraying bullets everywhere, leaving dents in the walls and... There were no Innies. No mines, bombs, poison gas, anything.

"Sir?" said a Marine; "Orders?"

"Drop your weapons. Now!" shouted someone from the side of the room.

Joseph looked around and saw that tens of Innies had slipped in through hidden doors, surrounding the Marines. They all had their Assault Rifles, Shotguns and Submachineguns raised and aimed.

"That answer your question?" another Marine said through the comm.

"No. I don't negotiate with Terrorists." the first replied.

"Yes we do. Drop your weapons." ordered Sergeant Titus.

Joseph heard a rifle clatter to the floor, and dropped his as the rest of Alpha did the same. Except for Frederic, who leapt for the nearest door, gunning down two Innies. Another grabbed him, slammed him to the wall, and held a pistol to his head. He shouted an order, and Joseph watched, silently cursing and hopeless, as a Marine was shot in the face. A second later Frederic got the same fate. His body was tossed roughly to the ground.

"Any of you resist, and two of you die. Clear?" shouted the Innie who shot Frederic.

Joseph looked at him. He held an M6D high-powered scoped magnum and was wearing helmetless Marine combat armour painted brown with orange stripes. A bandanna and cowboy hat, both brown, adorned his head. The rest of the Innies were also dressed in brown, orange and tan Marine armour, with missing pieces and some older versions, and mostly holding older version of the standard MA5B and BR55 rifles used by the Marines. A couple were wearing average clothes dyed the colours of the other Innie's armour.

The Marines all said varieties of the word 'yes', some adding insults.

"Are you in the position to piss me off, Marines?" shouted the Innie, who Joseph guessed was the leader.

The Marines chorused 'no', this time without insults.

"Thank you." the Innie Leader said; "Now, please stay still and don't resist. It'll just make it harder."

Joseph was confused for a second, then he felt a sting in his leg. He looked down tiredly through already blurring vision to see a powerful stun dart sticking out of him. Then he fell to the floor.

* * *

Joseph woke up, and forced his eyes open. He was in a small room, with a steel door with a security camera above it. He tried to move, but he couldn't. He looked down to see that he was tied to a chair by a thin but strong steel wire. Panic filled him, as he wondered why he was tied up on his own. What did he Innies want from him? He focused, determined not to show fear to whoever was monitoring the security camera feed. Suddenly, the door burst open an the Innie leader stormed in.

"You're awake. That means we have a little chit-chat." he said.

"Then?" Joseph asked, hoping the Innie would say he'd be ransomed back instead of executed.

"We'll see." the Innie Leader replied, in a California accent.

"So what do you want?" Joseph asked, cutting straight to the chase.

"Information." came the reply; "Like how you found this base."

"I'm just a lowly Marine, I don't know shit." Joseph bluffed.

"Don't lie to me, from what I extracted from the AI, you all know a fair amount." the Innie replied angrily.

"Database corruption, dumbass." Joseph snarled, trying to act like he was telling the truth.

The Innie Leader's boot struck Joseph's chest and the chair toppled backwards, leaving Joseph facing the roof, and the simple white lights embedded in it. A knife flashed down towards him, and cut straight through the wire. Joseph was gripped by the throat and slammed into a wall. He winced as pain flashed over his back. After 4 more times being slammed into the wall, he started to cry out in pain. Delight and statisfaction flashed through his torturer's eyes before he was thrown to the floor. Joseph breathed in, realising he was dressed in only his underwear. He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking it was over, but a second later he was stomped on by the Innie leaader, right in the chest. He yelled in pain as he was stomped more and more times.

"Don't lie to me, don't insult me and don't-" started the Innie Leader, lifting Joseph by his throat and drawing his Magnum; "Call me-"

A burst of gunfire went off and the Innie leader collasped, neck torn open by bullets. Joseph fell back onto the floor as the corpse fell away from him. Joseph wiped the blood off of his face and kicked the corpse in the balls. After that, he turned to the door, seeing the Lance Corporal- Joanne Hook, was it? - standing there in Innie clothes that were too big for her and holding an MA5A Rifle. Joseph blushed and quickly pulled the Innie Leader's armour off, trying to put it on. It was a far too tight tight, so he pulled on the simple brown trousers ans shirt underneath. Luckily, they fit. He saw something in the pocket and pulled it out, revealing a pair of black sunglasses. He put them on, and it came up with a message saying he was syncing with his neural implant. A HUD popped up, showing his health status, BPM, an error message where it should show radar, AI, and COMM, and his squad's status. All were alive, and all slightly wounded. Joseph's 14 health blocks had been reduced to 10 by the beating he had recieved. He took the Magnum from the Innie's corpse and turned to Joanne.

"Thanks." he said with a slight blush.

"I owed you one. Let's rescue the others." Joanne said calmly but also strictly.

"You owe them too?" Joseph jokingly asked.

Joanne smiled slightly.

"Come on." she said, reloading the Assault Rifle she was holding.

"Yes Ma'am." Joseph replied, checking the pistol's ammo on the newly appeared HUD section.

Joanne jogged away and Joseph followed her down a long, narrow, corridor until she stopped at the nearest door.

"Them goggles got infa-red?" Joanne asked.

Joseph looked over the HUD.

"No, Ma'am." Josesh sighed sadly.

"Then be ready to shoot anywhere." she ordered, getting ready to kick the door open.

"Yes, Ma'am." Joseph replied, raising his Magnum.

Joanne kicked the door open and rushed in, sweeping the room. A bullet came from the side of the room, catching her in the hip. She collasped as Joseph burst in and aimed where the shot had come from. He saw an Innie in mismatched armour holding an M7 SMG. He hesitated for a second, but fired a split-second before the Innie would've finished Joanne off. The Innie yelled and stumbled into the wall as Joseph squeezed the trigger again. This time the shot was fatal, and blood sprayed over the wall. Joseph turned to Joanne, who was getting up, then looked over at the prisoner in this room. A tag popped up identifying him as Private Chris Kimber. Joanne limped over and cut him free, then ordered him to take the armour. Luckily for Chris, it fit him, and soon he was standing in multicolour Marine armour. He ripped off the armour on the left arm, revealing his UNSC Marine tatto. The three Marines turned to the door, and started to continue with the 'mass' breakout.

**A/N: Sorry about the cliffhanger, but it was getting a bit too long, and if I finished the Innie Base section, it'd be too inconsistent with the rest.**


	5. Richard: Meeting With ONI

**A/N: I want to apologize for the tiny chapter, but it's important to one of the plot arcs. And also a bit of filler. I'll be back to action next time. Ok? You can put away the pitchforks and torches now. Ok? C'mom? Please? How will I make Chapter 6 if I'm dead or in hospital? Hah! K thnks bye.**

"**Corporal Richard Jensen** reporting, Sir!" Richard announced, saluting the ONI Spook in front of him.

ONI was the acronym for the Office of Naval Intelligence, the mysterious organisation that was, in effect, the leaders of the United Nations Space Command. Few men could claim to have met an ONI Spook, and fewer still wanted to.

The black-suited, deathly pale, ice eyed man in front of Richard spoke; "Follow me."

"Sir." Richard nodded.

The ONI Spook led him through the long, winding corridors of the UNSC Space Station _Leviathan_. Situated far out in the Outer Colonies, the armour surrounding the titanic, hexagonal saw plenty of use against Pirates and Innies, and the six Mass Accelerator Cannons were feared by all criminals. With the power generators, bridge and other important rooms located deep within it's core, the_ Leviathan_ could take one hell of a beating and keep on fighting. Eventually the ONI Spook stopped and headed into a room after going through several security checks. Richard followed him as he headed down into a hidden room, composed of a circular holographic table surrounded by chairs, and several security cameras. The Spook sat down on one side of the table next to two others, and Richard sat on the other side next to a few members of his squad.

"Tell us about the aliens." one of the Spooks demanded.

"There were three kinds. We nicknamed them Grunts, Jackals, and Elites." Daniel said.

"Tell us about the Grunts first." ordered a Spook.

"They were short, and grey skinned. They had these triangular boxes on their backs, and wore gas masks." Daniel stated; "They all had the same guns, that fired little green bolts."

"It could be charged up too." Richard added.

Sergeant Spiers chipped in; "The bolts were heat-based."

A holographic Grunt burst into life over the table.

"This is the, as you named it, Grunt?" a Spook asked.

"Yes." Richard said.

"What kind of numbers and formations were they in?" the Spook continued.

"They were in big groups, some led by Elites." Daniel said; "We didn't really need to aim, just spray and the died. They went down eas-"

"Stop. I've heard enough about these Grunts." the Spook said.

"With respect, sir, why don't you just watch our helmet cam feeds?" Sergeant Spiers asked.

"The heat damaged them, an unfortunate side effect of the new upgrade. We could only get a fraction of footage." announced the Spook; "On to the Jackals."

"They're kinda short too, and look a bit like birds. They have these circular shields." Daniel said; "They go into them Roman formations, umm..."

"Turtles." Sergeant Spiers said; "Makes them tough to beat."

"These ones, I assume." a Spook said, as a holographic Jackal popped up above the table.

"Yes." Richard confirmed.

"Then these are the Elites." finished the Spook, bringing up a hologram.

"Yes." Richard confirmed again.

"Them ones had full body shields and one had some kind of laser sword." Daniel said; "They also had heat bolt machine guns of some kind."

"They're fast and damn strong, too." Sergeant Spiers said.

"Dismissed." a Spook said.

The three ODST left the room, and the door sealed behind them.

"What, no thank you?" Daniel said.

"Ungrateful spooks." sighed Richard.

"I wouldn't say that if I was you." said Sergeant Spiers as he walked away; "They might overhear."

"We should listen in." Daniel said.

"The room is probably soundproof." Richard stated.

"This is inside another room, right?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah..." Richard replied.

"Maybe that's the soundproofed wall." Daniel smirked.

"Worth a try." Richard admitted.

The two ODSTs pressed up against the wall and listened. They could dimly hear voices.

"Report from the scientists has arrived, Sirs." a digital-sounding voice announced.

"Continue." came the cold voice of one of the spooks.

"They picked up traces of plasma in the hangars of the invaded ships. That fits with what we know from the ODSTs." the digital voice, probably an AI, continued.

"Plasma..." another of the Spooks said curiously; "Ionized particles, correct?"

"That would be correct, Sir." the AI replied.

"So by increasing or decreasing the amount of positive or negative ions we could counteract it?" the Spook asked.

"In theory, Sir." the AI confirmed; "But doing that is-"

"Difficult, I know. But I trust the scientists will make a breakthrough sooner or later." the Spook said, almost as a threat.

"I'll let them know of your theory, sir." the AI said calmly.

"Any other news?" a third Spook, who hadn't spoken in the meeting, asked.

"Yes, ma'am. From studies of the corpses, we have learnt the Grunts, as the ODSTs named them, breathe methane." the AI stated.

A smirk appeared on Daniel's face.

"What density is the methane?" the Spook who made the theory on the plasma asked.

Daniel sniggered.

"What was that?" another Spook asked.

"Scans indicate it's two of the ODST." the AI said.

"Shit!" shouted Richard and Daniel in unison, and they turned to run.

They reached the exit and it was locked. The spooks walked up behind them.

"Well well well." one said coldly.


	6. Nick: Battle of the Wall

**A/N: Funny story about this one. I had another chapter in the works when I went to my dads for the night. I didn't have the chapter I had been working on (which is about 50% done, BTW), so I started this one and ended up not only finishing it but making it the longest chapter so far.**

Lance Corporal Nick Bain checked his MG-2523 Machine Gun for the third time as he sat behind the wall the UNSC Army had set up. He was about to fight aliens, aliens who had plasma weapons, aliens who he knew barely anything about. He knew there was three types, and he knew the very basics about them types. He knew they were invading. And he knew that their ships were worth roughly 3 of their UNSC counterparts. He hoped their ground vehicles weren't. He looked around, almost as though checking that the other Army Troopers were still there. They were, almost 100 Troopers wearing armour similar to that of the UNSC Marines, but thicker and with different helmets. The helmets covered the back, sides and top of each Trooper's head, and a pull-down visor protected their forehead, eyes, and nose. Everything lower was left uncovered, which allowed the Troopers to benefit from 'energy gas' due to their mouths being uncovered. They were boasting a wide variety of weapons, including MA5Bs, MG-2523s, M90s, SRS99 Sniper Rifles, and 7th Generation Heavy Laser Cannons (7G-HLCs). Behind them was a horde of vehicles. There was around 20 M9 Main Anti-Aircraft Tank 'Wolverines' bristling with 3 Argent V Missile Pods and 2 Laser Cannons each, both aimed by laser targeting and lock-on systems. As well as that, there were 15 M808B Main Battle Tank 'Scorpions', each armed with heavy cannons, a pair of flamethrowers, a pair of machine guns, and one laser cannon. Not only that, they were built of thick, honeycombed armour, making them incredibly difficult to kill. They had also been thinly layered with a heat-resistant metal. All in all, they were the ultimate tank. Finally, Nick looked at the wall. It was also layered with heat-resistant material, and it was so tall that the only way aliens were getting past was by flying straight into over 60 Argent V Missile Pods.

"Them aliens are going too be blown into hell so hard, they'll come straight back out!" shouted Nick's best friend Private First Class Anton Carter.

Nick didn't share his best friend's enthusiasm, however; "You really think so, Anton. I think we're the ones going down."

"Don't think like that, Nick." Anton replied; "It'll just make things worse."

"I guess." Nick sighed; "But do you really think we can win this fight, let alone this war?"

"Of course." Anton replied; "We're so spread out, they won't have a doughnut chance in a room full of fatties finding half of our colonies."

"They found this one. What's to say they don't find the rest." Nick sighed.

"Logic, luck, chance, and a few other things. Harvest is one of hundreds of planets, you know." Anton said.

"Incoming! Enemy forces! Grunts, a few Elites and 3 of what look like some kind of hovertank! I reckon we got 2 minutes until they are in range!" a Trooper wielding a 7G-HLC and patrolling the top of the wall shouted nervously.

"This is it Troopers! Let's show them aliens what us humans are made of!" shouted Captain Bradley Smith, leader of the UNSC Army division positioned at the wall.

"This is Flight Lieutenant Jean Robinson, me and my Swords are ready for action." said the leader of the flight of Shortsword bombers and Longsword fighters assigned to Captain Smith's division.

"Give us updates on incoming enemies and wait for us to designate your targets." the Captain ordered.

"Yes sir." Flight Lieutenant Robinson replied; "Whatever you say!"

"Whatever I say huh?" Captain Smith said seductively; "I can think of a thing or two..."

"Now is not the time for that, Captain." Flight Lieutenant Robinson shouted over the sound of tens of Troopers sighing and face palming.

"Mortar hovertanks firing! Oh god!" shouted the Trooper who first saw the approaching enemies.

A second later three loud, large, blue explosions went off near the wall, one on an office building, which crumbled instantly. One hit the wall, which held but shook slightly, and the third hit the ground on the wrong side of the barricade.

"You've got your first targets, Flight Lieutenant." shouted Captain Bradley Smith; "Them mortar hovertanks!"

"Yes sir!" came the reply from above.

A second later three Shortsword bombers, barely visible through their stealth coating, soared past the wall and over the tanks. A few explosions later, one of the pilot reported that all three of the alien vehicles were 'deader than an Earth dodo', a joke saying made when dodos were discovered on the UNSC Capital Planet Reach. Cheers rang out through the Army ranks. A minute later, Laser Cannons and Snipers Rifles fired as the alien infantry came into accurate range. Half of the thirty Grunts and three of the eight Elites fell. Nick watched the destruction through another Trooper's scope, and couldn't help but smile. Army 26, Aliens 0, counting vehicles. Another volley raised the Army's score to 36 as eight Grunts and two Elites collapsed into piles of alien blood. Nick started to share Anton's enthusiasm. But then the alien Snipers joined the battle. Thin lances of purple tore holes straight through almost 10 of the UNSC's men. Nick cursed and ducked behind the wall, watching a human Sniper zoom in on an alien one, a Jackal, was it? It fell from the rooftops along with several of it's comrades after a short series of cracks. Nick breathed a sigh of relief, but then the Sniper who's visor Nick was looking through was cut in half by a gold-armoured elite wielding a dual-bladed blue energy sword, who had somehow leapt onto the top of the 35 meter tall wall. The sniper fell into the alien side of the street, revealing some kind of jump booster launching aliens up onto the wall. Nick swore, then backed away and sprayed bullets from his MG-2523, tearing apart a few Grunts. Only seconds later the wall was free of aliens. Unfortunately for the UNSC Army, no Troopers were left up there either.

"41-23." Nick sighed.

"At least we're winning." Anton said.

"What if they out-number us?" another Trooper asked.

Nick's HUD tagged him as Private Osric Nabdal.

"Enthusiasm a thing of the past?" Anton asked.

"It's doing good in other places." Osric joked.

"Captain, more aliens inbound to your wall. Two large jackal turtles, a Grunt horde, and roughly 30 Elites. Estimated 400 total aliens." Flight Lieutenant Robinson reported.

"That's not good. Is there any vehicles?" Captain Bradley Smith asked.

"15 mortar hovertanks, 3 of them using AA guns, 30 small scout vehicles, and 20 aircraft. Apparently they have plasma machine guns and a heavy cannon." the Flight Lieutenant replied sadly.

"Soften the up as much as you can without getting into trouble." Captain Bradley Smith ordered.

"Yes sir." came the reply from above.

"Got them in my sniper scope." a Trooper said.

Nick opened up the Sniper's feed and watched. An alien army was travelling along, 20 purple, smooth aircraft swirling above. A second later five Longswords opened fire with machine guns and rockets as they dove from the clouds. Four of the alien aircraft hit the ground and exploded in the midst of the army, and two more detonated in midair. The remaining fourteen scattered and turned to attack the Longswords. However, another five human fighter jets arrived on the scene and put seven more alien aircraft out of the battle. That left seven, which were struggling to split to fight both Longsword groups. However, the Longswords were already moving away at an insane speed. The aircraft took off after them, vanishing from sight in mere seconds. Then the Shortswords arrived, raining explosives and flame on the aliens below. Glowing green orbs shot up to meet them, and one was hit on the wing. It crashed into another an they both crashed into a nearby building. The other eight escaped, bombs dropped. The sniper zoomed on the destruction. One AA hovertank and five normal ones were destroyed, nine of the scout vehicles were smouldering wreckage and at least 20 Jackals, 50 Grunts and 10 Elites were dead. The Shortswords came in for another pass, but started to pull away. Nick cursed loudly as the reason, the seven alien aircraft who survived the Longsword attack and around ten more moving in at supersonic speeds. Four Shortswords escaped. Four didn't. Flight Lieutenant Robinson said that they could do nothing more. The rest of the battle would be fought on the ground. Nick swore again and steeled himself. It was time for a serious battle.

"ETA on the enemy?" asked Captain Bradley Smith.

"10 minutes." someone replied.

"Everyone ready, heavy weapons on the wall, automatics ready to fire when it falls." the Captain said; "Wolverines? We got AA?"

"Count on it." a Wolverine pilot replied emotionlessly.

"I will. Scorpions, make sure their tanks are destroyed." Captain Bradley ordered.

"Aye, sir, we'll do that." a driver with a Scottish accent replied.

"Then we wait." the Captain stated.

"Contact in Three... Two... One..." started a Trooper.

The sound of at least fifteen rockets and lasers finished what he was saying. After four volley, the alien returned fire with mortar tanks and the aircraft's heavy cannons. Some Troopers jumped. Some slid. Some sprinted down the stairs. All of them started making their way down. About four of sixteen made it. The Wolverines opened fire, and nine alien aircraft were blown to pieces as the barricade shook. The barricade shook again as the alien aircraft retreated from the UNSC's AA Tanks. The barricade shook one final time, then exploded. Tank cannons fired. Rockets soared through the air. Machine Guns and Assault Rifles unloaded. Grenades rained. Explosions tore apart the alien ranks, covering the Troopers as they mowed down the aliens. A Jackal shield wall moved into the gap and the UNSC infantry ran into the offices lining the street, reloading and discarding empty grenade belts. The Jackal shield wall started to advance when HMGs and Flamethrowers tore into them, breaking their shields and killing them with relative ease. Cannons fired past the mutilated corpses, but Nick couldn't tell where to. That is, not until he heard vehicles exploding. AA missiles were repurposed to take out the smaller scout vehicles. Nick sprinted out from the building and took cover behind some rubble. He popped out and mowed down the nearest foe, a blue armoured Elite. Alien shields meant nothing against 50 high-powered rounds delivered in just under a second. More Troopers were sliding into cover, lobbing grenades and firing their weapons. Nick ducked back down as a trio of Grunts fired at him. He felt his cover beginning to melt and slid to another piece, laying down covering fire as he did so. He aimed properly and ended the Grunt's lives in two seconds exactly. All around him, Troopers were killing aliens left, right and centre.

Suddenly, a group of Grunts lifted a glowing blue ball in each hand and sprinted forwards, diving at the Troopers. They exploded into balls of blue flame, bringing Troopers with them. Some Elites raised guns that fired the blue grenades an dropped death into the midst of the Troopers. The alien craft returned and mowed down a few Troopers before the Wolverines tore them from the sky. But by then it was too late, and the tables had already turned. The humans fell back, running for the tanks, which were slowly but surely being taken out. They were losing. Nick saw the Captain take a shot from an Elite right between the eyes, visible due to his visor being lifted, and he watched in horror as his CO fell to the ground, dead. A few seconds later three machine guns tore the killer into minuscule pieces of alien flesh and blood. It was too little too late. Suddenly, a wall of drop pods serrated the two armies. Nick smiled a the doors burst off and grenades, rockets and bullets soared into the alien ranks. He smiled even more when the black-clad Orbital Drop Shock Troopers took cover behind their pods. Anton whistled and muttered something along the lines of 'damn impressive'. Nick agreed, and was glad that the ODST had arrives to save their asses. He watched, slightly awed, as each of them, around twenty five in all, fired a pair of rockets at the aliens. The ODST discarded their uses launchers and then faded to a slight blur, thanks to the reactive plating on their armour. Nick tracked them on his HUD as they passed through the alien ranks, planting small bombs, them circled back to the UNSC army forces, returning into view.

"We'll kick down our pods and detonate the bombs we just planted. You noobs spray and pray. Kapeesh?" the ODST leader asked.

Nick winced at the word noob, but knew that in comparison to the ODST, he was one. He joined the chorus of 'yes' and raised his MG-2523. The pods were kicked to the ground and the ODSTs hit the concrete as a wave of ammunition rushed over them and hit the alien forces. That, combined with the explosions caused by the ODST's bombs, reduced the extra terrestrial army to a few scattered aliens, who the Army Snipers brought down in a matter of seconds.

"It's over." Nick sighed.

"For now, at least." replied Osric, walking up to Nick and Anton while removing his damaged helmet.

"Any idea of losses?" Nick asked.

"69 Troopers, 12 Scorpions, and 3 Wolverines." Osric sighed sadly.

"It could have been worse." Anton replied.

Suddenly, a colossal, four legged vehicle smashed into view. It was easily as tall as the wall had been, and the 'body' had a raised section that looked like a room. At the back, a huge purple turret turned to look at the UNSC forces. It's centre was like an emerald eye, covered by four purple "eyelids'. At the front a similar 'eye' was built into the craft. Nick zoomed on with his visor and saw aliens prowling the 'deck', manning smaller turrets and watching the city be torn apart by war. A huge, wide green beam came from the frontal 'eye', burning straight through a megamarket. A flight of Longsword attacked it, but the huge back turret sent a horde of green bots at it's attackers, swatting them like a  
Human swatted gnats. Two more of the vehicle dropped down from the sky near the first one, the shockwave crumbling a few nearby buildings. The three titanic vehicles melted a huge path through the city, headed straight for the skyscrapers in the west. Nick brought up a tactical map on his HUD, and checked the path. What he saw scared the life out of him.

He was right in the middle of it.


	7. Joseph: Breaking Free

**A/N: Sorry about this one being kinda short, but it's just so I can move on the the really interesting bits sooner, including the Scarabs attacking the city on Harvest, Richard and Daniel's fate, and Covenant slaying action. Don't have too much fun reading this, because the story is about to get a whole lot better.**

Private Joseph Clark looked down the corridor, and what he saw chilled him to the bone. A squad of Innies, all aiming at him and the other 2 Marines with MA5As. He doubted they were using stun rounds, and was certain they didn't want a peaceful solution. He rolled back into the cell as the other two did the same. Chris threw a flashbang grenade he had found on the Innie's body into the corridor. Joseph's hearing went, and he popped out into the corridor, knowing the flashbang had gone off. He aimed at the Innies and fired, the powerful rounds punching straight through their armour and sending them to the ground in one shot. One round hit one who was wearing normal clothes in the shoulder and his arm went flying away, everything from the elbow up torn apart by the impact. The Innie who survived Joseph's volley dropped his gun and ran, screaming. A burst of bullets tore apart his back and Joanne lowered her rifle.

"Did you need to do that?" Joseph asked.

"He could've gone for help." Joanne replied.

"There's cameras here anyway!" Joseph exclaimed.

"I didn't realise that." Joanne said; "But we need to move on."

"Our gear's at the end of the corridor on the left." Chris said.

"Huh?" Joanne asked.

"I synced this armour with the battlenet and used my normal helmet's view." Chris explained.

"Clever." Joanne said; "The others are all in these rooms, right?"

"Probably." Chris said.

"Alright. Joseph, go get geared up and defend the corridor entrance." Joanne said, taking command.

"Yes, ma'am!" Joseph barked, before hurrying off to the last room on the left.

He reached it and pulled the door open. Inside was all of their gear left on the floor in a disorganised heap. He quickly synced the HUD glasses with the UNSC battlenet that connected all Marines in the system, and looked through his helmet's camera. Using that, he found his armour and pulled it on over the Innie's clothes. He grabbed an MA5B and XGR1 from the floor and left the room. He aimed at the corridor entrance and waited. A few seconds later, the door burst open and three Innies swarmed in. He tore two of their legs apart and shifted his aim to the last but he was tackled. He threw the Innie off of him and scrambled to his feet. The Innie leapt in for a punch but Joseph's slightly augmented body and speed enhancing armour allowed him to dodge and slam a fist into the side of the Innie's face fairly easily. He glared at the Innie, who was wearing brown Marine armour except for on his head, which was bare. Joseph closed the distance between them and kicked the Innie in the chest, causing him to double over. He was about to follow up when the Innie slammed into him and sent him staggering back slightly. Near instantly the Innie was punching again.

Joseph blocked and retaliated with a double-fist punch. The Innie just dodged and kicked at Joseph's shins. Joseph didn't expect the move and didn't fully dodge the attack. He slammed into the ground and the Innie sent a stomp towards his chest. Joseph caught the armoured boot and pushed the Innie backwards and over. The two fighters got back to their feet at the same time and shot into an exchange of punches and blocks. After six or seven seconds Joseph landed a punch on the Innie's face and blood arced around his fist, teeth clattering to the ground. A second later he was thrown back a meter and a half by his furious foe. He tried to get back up but a kick threw him back. This time he managed to catch himself and got up in time to kick the charging Innie in the chest. The Innie stumbled backwards and Joseph delivered a fast, furious and fierce kick to his face. The Innie fell backwards and hit the ground. That second another trio of Innies rushed into the room.

"For fuck's sake!" he cursed as he readied his XGR1.

An Innie tried to leap him but a super-accelerated projectile tore straight through her body and the wall behind her. Bullets slammed into and dented Joseph's armour, and he just managed to get inside the room holding the team's gear. He saw asomething on the ground and smiled. He sprinted to the back of the room, rolled forwards, and snatched an M90 Shotgun from the ground. He aimed at the Innies coming into the room 15 meters away and fired. The shotgun adapted to the range perfectly in the split second before it fired, and both Innies hit the ground, either dead or unconscious. Joseph almost smiled. He was getting used to killing. After all, it wasn't people he was killing. It was Innies. He walked out into the corridor and slotted another shell he had grabbed from the ground into the Shotgun. 10 people in mismatched armour and clothes jogged into the room by him, and Joseph waited until they came back out into the corridor, armoured in Marine armour and wielding two weapons each. Except for Sergeant Titus.

"That would be my Shotgun, private." he said, looking straight at Joseph.

"Aww." Joseph moaned; "I like this gun."

"Private-" Sergeant Titus started.

"I know, I know." Joseph sighed; "Here you go."

A few of the Marines were sniggering.

"Shut it." he said into the comm.

"Focus, Marines." Sergeant Titus shouted; "I've called for backup to bust us out, but they're going to take roughly 10 minutes to arrive. We need to survive that long!"

"Preferably longer too." Frederic yelled.

"Ooh-rah!" came the reply from all of the Marines.

"We need to find a more defensible place." Joanne said.

"Agreed. On me!" shouted Sergeant Titus, heading out of the corridor and up the stairs it led to.

Joseph followed up the stairs, which funneled them into another corridor, full of more rooms. He looked into one with an open door and saw that it was a dormitory with 8 bunkbeds. He did some quick maths. In the corridor there was 8 rooms, each holding 16 Innies, so that was... 128 Innies? Joseph cursed silently. That was a lot of Innies. He quickly told the rest of the squad, earning a few curses. Eventually they came out into a room that looked like a command centre, with a heavy, sealed door at each end, and spiral staircase in the centre. Racks of weapons were scattered around the room and most had a few MA5As and old shotguns in them. A few ammo crates were scattered around, some missing lids. Big screens lined the walls, presumably to show the Innie Leader giving out orders. During his life.

"This looks as good a place as we'll get. Set up them crates around the stairs. We can watch for Innies coming down and fire on the other two entrances." Sergeant Titus said.

"Sir, with all due respect, I'm not sure that's the best plan." Joanne said; "I would suggest setting up in the corners, split into groups of 3, and one 2."

"I guess that will work... Ok, we'll go with that. You, you, you, there! You three there! You two with me! And you two, last corner!" Sergeant Titus said, gesturing as he spoke.

"Sir, yes sir!" the Marines yelled in unison, before scurrying off and dragging crates to the corners.

Within a minute Joseph, Frederic and Chris were all crouched behind a wall of ammo crates, built to contain a slit giving them full coverage of the room with their rifles. The room was completly bare of ammo boxes except for the 4 bunkers. The Marines waited. And then the Innies came. They poured out from the spiral staircase and both doors, firing in all directions, their bullets clattering onto the ground after hitting walls and ammo boxes. Bullets and super-accelerated Gauss projectiles tore them apart before they could start to properly aim at their targets. Another wave poured in, and started spraying and praying at the bunkers. A bullet got into Joseph's bunker and hit him in the shoulder. Normally, that wouldn't have been a problem. But it was a sniper rifle round. Joseph was thrown backwards slightly into the wall and the bullet sunk into his skin and slightly further, into his shoulder bone. He screamed in pain as the firefight continued. Chris kept firing but Frederic pulled out his medical kit. Joseph's vision went dark.

His vision returned a second later, and he wished it hadn't. Frederic had pulled the bullet out and blood was cascading out of his shoulder. His vision went again, and when it came back his shoulder was sealed up with biofoam. Pain throbbed throughout his body regardless, but he managed to lift the Innie leader's pistol in his left hand. He dimly noticed the midnight black finish and silver highlights, in places like the trigger and clip. He aimed one handed and looked through the scope via his HUD. He fired and the gun barely shifted an inch as it tore through an Innie's kneecap. Joseph grunted in pain as a grenade went off nearby, sending a slight shockwave through his body. He stumbled back and fired again, blowing through an Innie's chest. A few seconds later the firing stopped, and the floor was filled with Innies, either dead or on their way there. Crimson blood stained the ground, and cough and moans of pain blended into one sound, the sound of suffering. Joseph felt slightly ill, a sensation barely different through his pain. It was disgusting.

"Squad, gather together!" shouted Sergeant Titus, walking to the center of the room, the other two Marines from his makeshift 'bunker' following him.

The Marines all gathered around Sergeant Titus. Almost all of them had slight dents and marks in their armour from stray and lucky shots, but Joseph's wounds were the worst of the lot.  
A few seconds later the roof exploded into flame and a Pelican dropship flew into the room. The Marines boarded and got ready to leave.


End file.
